During work at the Delta site of
Tell el-Dab'a during April 2011, I took a short morning trip to the site of
Tanis (modern San el-Hagar) in the north-eastern Nile Delta with my colleagues Dr. David Aston and Dr. Alan Clapham. On reaching the site, around 40 minutes drive from Tell el-Dab'a, I was taken aback by the sheer size of the vast archaeological mounds, which could legitimately be described as resembling the lunar landscape!
Tanis was chosen as the site for the northern capital of Egypt during the
21st Dynasty, and preserved the subterranean royal tombs of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties which contained fine
burial equipment now housed in Cairo's Egyptian Museum. The site was initially excavated by
Auguste Mariette and later by
Flinders Petrie and
Pierre Montet, and is currently being excavated by a French team.
Many of the blocks and statues used to create this new capital city were taken from the Delta capital of
Ramesses II at
Pi-Ramesses (Modern Qantir) in the northeast Delta and reused by the rulers of the 21st and 22nd Dynasty, who Shaw (see below) wittily described as being "
children unleashed in a box of spare Lego bricks". Temples dedicated to
Amun,
Horus,
Mut,
Khonsu and
Astarte have been identified at the site, together with an outer mudbrick enclosure wall dating to the reign of
Psusennes I and a sacred lake.
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| Reused architectural elements from Pi-Ramesses |
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| Reused colossal statue of Ramesses II |
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| Reused columns, now fallen |
It was fantastic to visit Tanis, not least to attempt a (futile) search for the
Ark of the Covenant! I do highly recommend a visit if ever you are in the area, we were alone except for a small group of French tourists and the absence of loud noise was especially memorable, at least until the noon Muezzin calls!
Dr. Garry Shaw has recently published an entertaining account of his recent visit to Pi-Ramesses and Tanis in Al-Rawi (photos by Henning Franzmeier) which is also worth a read.
During work at the Delta site of Tell el-Dab'a during April 2011, I took a short morning trip to the site of Tanis (modern San el-Hagar) in the north-eastern Nile Delta with my colleagues Dr. David Aston and Dr. Alan Clapham. On reaching the site, around 40 minutes drive from Tell el-Dab'a, I was taken aback by the sheer size of the vast archaeological mounds, which could legitimately be described as resembling the lunar landscape!
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